Reality Check: Civil Society in Uganda (2019)

CDA undertook a deep dive study to analyse the public discourse on the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) ecosystem in Uganda and the evolution of CSOs over the last 30 years. The current  CSO ecosystem is dominated by Non-Government Organisation (NGOs), explained by a fundamental shift in development thinking favouring a neo-liberal development pathway accompanied by a retrenchment of the state and traditional community-based CSOs. The study argues that the rise of NGOs has impacted the ability of CSOs to mobilise and sustain broad-based citizen participationand engagement that are necessary for driving institutional change and democratisation. The study also led to extensive engagement with CSOs and other stakeholders in the Reality Check 11 launch event in January 2020.